


Sweetened Grapes

by Yotsubadancesintherain5



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, No Dialogue, Reader-Insert, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 12:39:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12582088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yotsubadancesintherain5/pseuds/Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: Penny didn't consider herself lucky, but that would change when the town gets a new resident.





	Sweetened Grapes

Penny vaguely remembered when her mother had a job. She would come back from the desert with presents, tom kha soup for dinner and anything that could be made with sandfish. It smelled wonderful, a physical truth that the world was huge and wonderful. It was one of the happier memories with her father that she could remember.

But the bus line broke down and her father left because he couldn't handle what transpired. The smell of beer and wine, sickly sweet, doused itself in her home. Penny couldn't even escape into her room from the smell because it stained everything.

She knew that her mother loved her; but not enough for her mother to stop drinking, to try and do better. It felt like an obligatory love over the years. 

Penny was going to make herself better. She left as early as she could and went back home as late as she could. She read books and taught the children, and worked to keep the crumbling house from falling into absolute filth.

Then a farmer moved into the abandoned farmhouse. They quickly made friends, but paid the most attention to Penny. It was an odd thing for her, somebody that actively sought her out, but it was welcomed. The farmer brought her gifts from the farm, the mines, even from the traveling cart that cost so much money.

Penny worried at first that it was pity. But she knew what pity looked like when it crossed someone's face, and the farmer's smiles were genuine. They wanted to know her, and readily accepted when she asked if she could be their girlfriend.

When winter was over one year and it rained in the spring, the farmer ran into the library and presented her with a Mermaid Pendant. She accepted immediately.

Penny moved onto the farm and she finally felt lucky. There was love that wasn't obligatory. The sickly sweet smell was replaced by tilled earth, vegetables freshly dug out of the ground, the organic sweet smell of fruits. For the first time since her childhood the world felt huge and wonderful.

**Author's Note:**

> Stardew Valley is amazing. 
> 
> I didn't draw from any personal experience, in case anyone was worried.


End file.
